A WOMAN today appealed for her brother's killer to be kept behind bars and insisted: "She will strike again if she is let out."

The move came as police prepared to appeal for an increase in the four-and-a-half year sentence given to the woman who stabbed Peter Ormiston, 49, to death.

Mr Ormiston, who grew up in Whalley and was born in Ramsbottom, died at the hands of his girlfriend following an argument outside their flat in Ramsey on the Isle of Man in January 2004.

Police on the Isle of Man are preparing to challenge the sentence given to bank worker Ann Marie Gosling, 52, after she pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

Gosling, who suffered from depression, was initially charged with murder. Psychiatric tests revealed she had a severe personality disorder and sense of abandonment.

Mr Ormiston's family were shocked by the leniency of the sentence. Speaking yesterday at an inquest into his death Mr Ormiston's sister, Margaret Howard, told how it was impossible to gain closure when her brother's killer would soon be freed. Mrs Howard, from Simmons Way, Altham, said: "We feel she will do it again. She will latch on to someone else in the same way.

"It is going to take a long time for the family to come to terms with what has happened. We are never going to get justice."

Under Manx law Gosling, who was held in custody for two-and-a-half years before being sentenced in May, could be released shortly after Christmas.

Mrs Howard, 44, added: "How they can justify letting her out in January is beyond me. She should have been locked up for a very long time."

Mr Ormiston went to live in the Isle of Man in 2001 and had been with Gosling for 15 months before his death.

Eye witnesses reported seeing Gosling pounce on Mr Ormiston, a former pupil at Ribblesdale High School, Clitheroe, and worker at Castle Cement's Ribblesdale works, as the couple returned to their flat from a local pub.

A court was later told how Gosling stabbed Mr Ormiston with a kitchen knife as the pair rolled across the grass. A post-mortem examination revealed that the father-of-two died from a stab wound to the chest.

Police on the Isle of Man have been liaising with the Attorney General's chambers with a view to appeal against the sentencing.

It is hoped that fresh reports, due to be finalised in September, will help them secure a longer conviction.

It may be that the case is reviewed under British law so that a harsher sentence can be enforced.